All manner and variety of absorbent articles configured for the absorption of body fluids such as menses, urine, and feces are, of course, well known. Absorbent articles, particularly sanitary napkins, having wings or flaps are disclosed in the literature and are available in the marketplace.
Generally, absorbent articles having flaps will comprise a central absorbent means which is provided with an adhesive attachment means, or central pad adhesive, for affixing the central absorbent means to the crotch of a wearer's undergarment. The central pad adhesive is generally provided with a release liner to protect the adhesive from dirt, keep the adhesive from drying out and to keep the adhesive from sticking to extraneous surfaces prior to use. The release liner is peeled from the central pad adhesive to expose the adhesive surface which is then applied to the central crotch region of the panties to secure the central absorbent means in place. After being peeled from the central pad adhesive, the release liner is discarded.
Generally, the flaps of such absorbent articles extend laterally from a central absorbent means and are intended to be folded around the edges of the wearer's panties in the crotch region. Thus, the flaps are disposed between the edges of the wearer's panties in the crotch region and the wearer's thighs.
The flaps serve at least two purposes. First, the flaps prevent exudates which otherwise would soil the edges of the wearer's parities from doing such. Second, the flaps help stabilize the napkin from shifting out of place, especially when the flaps are affixed to the underside of the panties.
Sanitary napkins having flaps of various types are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,478, entitled "Shaped Sanitary Napkin With Flaps", which issued to Van Tilburg on Aug. 18, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, entitled "Sanitary Napkin Attachment Means", which issued to Mattingly on Aug. 26, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,876, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to Van Tilburg on May 20, 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to McNair on Aug. 25, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,697, entitled "Disposable Sanitary Shield For Undergarments", which issued to Rickard on Aug. 20, 1968, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,787,271, entitled "Sanitary Napkin", which issued to Clark on Apr. 2, 1957, all of which patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Commonly, the flaps are provided with an adhesive attachment means, or flap adhesive, for affixing the flaps to the underside of the wearer's panties. The flap adhesive is generally provided with a release liner to protect the adhesive from contaminants such as dirt, keep the adhesive from drying out and keep the adhesive from sticking to the skin of the wearer and/or extraneous surfaces prior to use. The release liner is peeled from the flap adhesive to expose the adhesive surface which is then applied to the underside of the panties to secure the flap in place. After being peeled from each of the flap adhesives, the release liners are discarded. However, this arrangement requires the use of two hands to remove the release liner from each flap, i.e., the user must hold the flap with one hand and peel the release liner with the other hand. This also requires the user to dispose of three separate release liners which have been removed from the central absorbent means and each of the flaps of the sanitary napkin. Therefore, there is a need for a sanitary napkin having the flaps arranged relative to the central absorbent means such that the flap adhesives and the central pad adhesives can be covered with a single strip of protective release material.
Several concepts have been proposed to provide an absorbent article comprising a single release liner which protects both the central pad adhesive and the flap adhesives. U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,178 entitled "Sanitary Napkin With Flaps", which issued Oct. 20, 1987 to Glaug et al., teaches a double sided release liner. The first side of the release liner covers the central pad adhesive, and the flap are folded over the release liner with the flap adhesives contacting the second side of the release liner. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,704 entitled "Intermittent Batwing Adhesive System For Sanitary Napkin", which issued Jul. 28, 1992 to Wheeler, teaches a sanitary napkin having bat-wing flaps (i.e., flaps which are wrapped around the edges of the wearer's panty and secured to each other). The body-facing side of at least one of the flaps has a flap adhesive joined thereto, and the garment side of the absorbent element of the sanitary napkin comprises an adhesive joined thereto which is longitudinally aligned colinearly with the flap adhesive. One side of a single strip of release liner covers both the adhesive of the absorbent element and the adhesive of the body side of the flap.
The absorbent articles of the prior art lack the aspects of the present invention whereby a disposable absorbent article comprising flaps, has flap adhesives joined to the garment side of each flap, and each flap is folded such that the central pad adhesive and the flap adhesives can be covered by one side of a single release liner. Additionally, the absorbent article of the present invention may have either bat-wing flaps or conventional flaps, i.e., flaps which are secured to the undergarment of the wearer as opposed to being secured to the other flap.
While flaps greatly improve the effectiveness of a sanitary napkin, the flaps of a sanitary napkin may hinder or impede application of the sanitary napkin to the crotch of the wearer's panty. Currently, each of the flaps of a sanitary napkin have an end, the distal end, which may move freely relative to the sanitary napkin. Once the release paper of the central pad adhesive is removed by the wearer, the distal ends of the flaps may fall between the crotch portion of the wearer's panty and the sanitary napkin and may become adhered to the central pad adhesive. Therefore, there is a need for a sanitary napkin having flaps positioned so that they will not interfere with the application of the sanitary napkin to the panty.
While sanitary napkins having flaps are commonly viewed as providing better protection against soiling as compared to sanitary napkins without flaps, some women still prefer a sanitary napkin without flaps, and some women who generally prefer a sanitary napkin with flaps, occasionally (such as on light flow days) prefer a sanitary napkin without flaps. However, currently available sanitary napkins having flaps will not function properly unless the flaps are used (i.e, are folded down along the edges of the crotch of the wearer's undergarment and affixed to the underside of the undergarment). For example, prior to use the flaps of a sanitary napkin are folded over the garment side of the sanitary napkin or are folded over the body-facing side of the sanitary napkin. Therefore, if the flaps are not used while the sanitary napkin is being used, the flaps will either obstruct the surface intended to receive bodily exudates on the body-facing side of the sanitary napkin, or will obstruct the adhesive or other fastening means positioned on the garment side of the sanitary napkin. Therefore, there is a need for a sanitary napkin having flaps which may or may not be used while the sanitary napkin is being used.
Absorbent articles, such as sanitary napkins, which can be packaged as individual units have proven to be very useful. Individually packaged absorbent articles are shown in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,146 entitled "Individually Packaged Disposable Absorbent Article", which issued on Dec. 3, 1985 to Swanson et al., discloses a wrapper which overlays one major surface of an absorbent article and forms an individually packaged disposable absorbent article by folding the article and sealing the wrapper. However, when the absorbent article has flaps, the flaps will interfere with the positioning of the wrapper and will generally have to be positioned out of the way of the wrapper such as on the body-facing side of the article. Therefore, there is a need for an improved disposable absorbent article having flaps, which can be easily formed into an individually packaged disposable absorbent article.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, having flaps folded such that the flap adhesives and the central pad adhesives can be protected by a single piece of release liner.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, having flaps which are folded and arranged such that the flaps will not interfere with the application of the sanitary napkin to the crotch of the wearer's panty.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article, such as a sanitary napkin, having optional side flaps, i.e., flaps which are folded and arranged such that the flaps may or may not be used while the absorbent article is being used.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a disposable absorbent article having folded flaps and a wrapper which overlays one major surface of the article and the folded flaps to form an individually packaged disposable absorbent article.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.